Department of Education, Unit Catalogue 2010/11 |
ED20437: Intervention, organisation and practice |
 Credits:
| 6 |
| Level:
| Intermediate |
| Period: | This unit is available in... |
| Semester 1 |
| Assessment:
| CW 70%, OR 30% |
| Supplementary Assessment: | Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations) |
| Requisites:
| |
| Description:
| Aims: The aims of this unit are to: * develop analytic and integrative skills that are important for analysing, planning and evaluating interventions directed toward realising policy-motivated programmes, with a special focus on educational and social service practices; * support these skills with provides relevant conceptual resources including key theoretical ideas and methodological perspectives from psychological, sociological and organisational research traditions; * give special emphasis to (a) forming theoretically-motivated reasons for interventions, (b) evaluating proposed interventions for their theoretical justifications, and (c) conceptualising persons in relation to practices, organisations, and institutions. Learning Outcomes: In completing this unit students will be expected to: * develop a systematic and reasoned plan for an intervention that takes account of historical, institutional, organisational, and psychological aspects; * give a general account of key ideas in cultural-historical psychology; * give general accounts of the ideas of practice, organisation, and institution; * have a general awareness of different methodological approaches for developing interventions; * have a general knowledge of central concepts about organisational description, function, and development; * have a general awareness of central methodological issues in organisational development. Skills: * Comprehensive and scholarly written communication (e.g. essays) * Effective oral communication (e.g. seminar and final presentations) * Ability to select, summarise and synthesis written information from multiple sources * Ability to develop rigorous arguments through precise use of concepts and models * Ability to apply theory into practice * Ability to produce work to agreed specifications and deadlines * Ability to work effectively as part of a group or team, without close supervision and guidance. Content: * historical perspectives on institutions and interventions in relation to children * conceptualising relations between social policy and institutional practices, especially in relation to education and social services * theoretical concepts about practice (e.g., theory of activity, cultural-historical science) * cultural-historical psychology (e.g., genetic law, zone of proximal development, self-regulation of action, and other concepts, including such theorists as Vygotsky, Leontiev, El'konin, Hedegaard) * intervention approaches (e.g., action research, child and practice-centred approach) * concepts of organising and organisation (e.g., metaphors of organisation, organisational learning, organisational knowledge) * organisational boundaries (e.g., power, recontextualisation, inter-organisational relations, loosely-coupled systems) * methodological approaches to organisational development (e.g., practice-developing research) * programme evaluation, including concepts of formative and summative evaluation. |